Islanders fan perspective, this is actually pretty simple for Florida trade down to 2 or 3 & take your man MacKinnon, Barkov or Drouin. Let a team more desperate for Seth Jones take him & give you something nice at the same time.

Islanders fan perspective, this is actually pretty simple for Florida trade down to 2 or 3 & take your man MacKinnon, Barkov or Drouin. Let a team more desperate for Seth Jones take him & give you something nice at the same time.

Duh.. We're the Panthers, we don't like drafting first overall anyway.

The Top 4-5 are pretty good picks all around, so we should end up with someone very talented wherever we finish. I am literally okay with either MacKinnon, Drouin or Jones. Don't know much about Barkov or that Russian who's name escapes me.

It's really stupid to say MacKinnon and Drouin project to one day be considered, but then imply that Jones doesn't simply because you don't want to draft a defenseman.

Ottawa looks really stupid drafting Erik Karlsson. How dare they take a d-man in the 1st round?

I said Pronger and Lidstrom could be HOFers.

He said Jones is that good.

I don't agree.

As far as drafting defenseman goes in the first round.. I'm fine with it. If you're looking at a defenseman to go number one overall.. Then, he better as if not more valuable than Erik Karlsson. Otherwise, that team will regret passing over prospects like Mac and Drouin.

Even if Jones projects as good as Lidstrom, I don't want him. Lidstrom had insane offensive superstars to develop around. We would just crush this guy's growth potential. Honestly if we drafted zero defensemen and zero goalies I would be happy. I just saw a depressing stat, that in our entire history we have scored over 250 goals only once. Please for the love of freaking god stay away from defense for once.

As people have pointed out, we really can't go wrong with one of Mac, Drouin, Barkov, or Jones. I'll be ecstatic with any of those four. Nichushkin would also be tremendous, but I don't want to wait 2-3 years to see him in a Panthers uni.

I actually think Drouin would be my choice if I were in charge. He's having a ridiculous season.

As far as drafting defenseman goes in the first round.. I'm fine with it. If you're looking at a defenseman to go number one overall.. Then, he better as if not more valuable than Erik Karlsson. Otherwise, that team will regret passing over prospects like Mac and Drouin.

Even if Jones projects as good as Lidstrom, I don't want him. Lidstrom had insane offensive superstars to develop around. We would just crush this guy's growth potential. Honestly if we drafted zero defensemen and zero goalies I would be happy. I just saw a depressing stat, that in our entire history we have scored over 250 goals only once. Please for the love of freaking god stay away from defense for once.

2) the list is dominated by Q players. Even controlling for league scoring levels by normalizing to 8 goals per game, Q fwds take 5 of top 6 spots (and 18 of top 40. O with 17 in top 40 and W with only 5).

3) If guys score at that clip as 17/18 year olds in major junior, they almost definitely will be able to score at NHL level (only complete bust on the list in Brendl) and should not be passed over in draft. Six on that list slipped past the top 10 of the draft - Biere 24th, Savard 91st, Little 12th, Ribeiro 45th, Tanguay 12th, and Richards 64th. Jury still out on Little, but the other 5 are (or were) top 6 forwards with some seasons at all-star level.

If you do the same things with goals (arguably a better predictor of NHL success than points), here are the top 40:

People think Nashville is a good club to use as a model. Well, sure they're competitive every year without any offensive allstars. They also can't win the big one. It's a much better situation than us, but it's not all great over there.

On the other hand the D-man vs. forward decision here has another wrinkle.

The Panthers have an organizational need for excitement... for buzz.

A forward does that far better than a d-man - even if at the end of the day their effect on the W-L column is the same.

More buzz => more ticket sales => more $14 heinekens sold => more profits => more money to spend on team improvement

If Mac & Hubs start lighting it up on ESPN highlights, that will be very, very good for the Florida Panthers... much, much moreso than having a Shea Weber quality d-man would.

None of that is really going to be in the minds of the scouting staff. They'll simply relay a collective opinion on the "best player available".

Wins equal success. Sure, entertaining wins are great, but you plan for wins over entertainment, and if entertainment comes with it ... great.

They'll take whoever they think is the best player. Surely there is only so much inane speculation people can make over this? After awhile, pretty much everything that can be said has been said.

Maybe if you wished to approach it from a more analytical stand point, it would be of some interest. Impact Forwards tend to be selected higher in the draft, whereas impact defenseman are more common slightly lower. I also personally believe it's easier to find good solid defenseman than it is to find good scoring Forwards. Not that particular pertains to this situation. As a more general rule, i think it's easier to coach and find a D-core that can be reliable and effective than it is with Forward counter-parts. It's easier to coach defense than it is offense. Again, though, when we're talking about elite elite prospects ; how much of that is relevant?

The only thing i will say about Jones, is whilst he is a brilliant prospect and a viable #1 candidate, he's being proclaimed to early. I'd want to wait 4-5 years before believing he really is ahead of any other recent young defensive prospects.

Even in years were we've had good goalies and good defense we haven't done anything because we can't score goals. They should rename the team the Florida CantScores. I am just SO TIRED of it. Also, if you actually have a good offense you keep the pressure on the other side, reducing chances against. In addition to that, if you play with the lead you can then change your playstyle to more conservative as the game goes on, again reducing chances against. A huge part of allowing 3.71 goals against is that we are always playing from behind. That won't change if we keep a crap forward core.

On the other hand the D-man vs. forward decision here has another wrinkle.

The Panthers have an organizational need for excitement... for buzz.

A forward does that far better than a d-man - even if at the end of the day their effect on the W-L column is the same.

More buzz => more ticket sales => more $14 heinekens sold => more profits => more money to spend on team improvement

If Mac & Hubs start lighting it up on ESPN highlights, that will be very, very good for the Florida Panthers... much, much moreso than having a Shea Weber quality d-man would.

While I also think along those lines and think scoring is more exciting than trying to prevent scoring, one thing to bear in mind. The Atlanta Thrashers had Kovalchuk and Heatley and then Kovalchuk and Hossa. Lot of good it did them. Just saying.